Forcing Me to Be Reborn?!-Chapter 653 - 465

Regarding the second approach, now was not yet the time.

In fact, the cost of this co-branded version would be higher than that of regular milk tea, and not just by a measly 3 yuan.

Because when you bought the co-branded packaged milk tea, you also got a little piece of merchandise.

For instance, those cartoon character paper stands that could be propped up on a desk.

Before the drama officially aired, each store had already piled up a massive amount of the new packaging, and a lot of little merchandise too.

The quantity Cheng Zhu had prepared initially was staggering!

Yet it turned out that hardly anyone bought them; they just sat piled up in the stores.

After all, if the drama wasn’t a hit, no one knew what this stuff was.

There was no point in spending extra money on it.

This caused quite a bit of chatter amongst the staff in the stores, with many feeling that these items would be useless and couldn’t be sold.

The most exaggerated part was that the stores hadn’t even sold off their existing stock, and just this morning, another new batch had been delivered!

"How much did the boss actually order in the beginning?"

"How could this possibly sell?"

"There’s so much stock it’s taking up space."

"We have no idea when we’ll get rid of it."

Cheng Zhu, however, was inwardly as calm as ever; all of this was within his expectations.

He even casually picked up his phone to check if there were any competitors kicking him while he was down or mocking him with schadenfreude.

Real business battles were always this direct, with bosses commonly stepping into the fray to spew criticisms.

Sure enough, he spotted some snide remarks.

Firstly, the most gleeful one had to be Chen Yue.

After the second round of financing, she would accept interviews from the media from time to time, constantly putting herself in the spotlight and building her public image.

When Cheng Zhu opened the video, he was actually impressed: "Wow! Her complexion has improved, and it seems her attractiveness has gone up by just a little bit!"

No wonder there’s a saying in the entertainment industry: "Popularity nourishes."

He felt that Sister Yue was indeed spirited due to happy events.

—Feeling good again, Sister Yue?

In the video, the interviewer asked Chen Yue, "I’ve noticed a lot of celebrities drinking Yue Tea products, has Yue Tea considered sponsoring TV dramas or creating co-branded drama merchandise?"

"Absolutely not!" said Chen Yue directly.

After that, she began to explain her reasoning, "I don’t know a thing about the entertainment industry. As is well-known, even large projects that many people are optimistic about can flop. Such casual betting is irresponsible to the company."

Cheng Zhu found this really amusing as he watched.

He might be a bit of a scoundrel, but he was quite responsible when it came to his company.

"He even elevates my position! Not bad, not bad, after studying abroad for a few years, I haven’t completely returned my Chinese language skills to my Chinese teacher," he commented.

Apart from Chen Yue, he also saw people from traditional milk tea industries taking the opportunity to throw in a few kicks.

"This co-branding thing really involves high risks."

"Our last co-branding did not yield good results, it can be said that this isn’t the right path."

Cheng Zhu: "Nice, painting me as a heretic."

But then, something interesting happened.

That very night, the ratings for "Langya List" started to climb!

The drama turned its decline around, suddenly breaking through from 0.4 to surpassing 0.6!

It was clear that the positive word of mouth was beginning to take effect.

"Langya List" had only a few lackluster episodes at the start; in fact, once you got through those, the exciting parts were quite dense.

Online, discussions about the drama began to increase significantly.

Many people started spreading the word, recommending this historical drama to friends and family.

However, Cheng Zhu was well aware that the ratings explosion for "Langya List" actually started in the midst of the series.

The early episodes saw a modest rise, but it only hovered between 0.6 and 0.8, peaking at times at 0.7, but sometimes it would dip back to the 0.6 range, fluctuating back and forth.

What he needed to do was just to wait.

To wait for it to truly take off!

Yet, two days later, Cheng Zhu suddenly realized he had also misjudged the situation.

"I almost forgot, this drama is a critically acclaimed one; it has consistently been at the top of iQiyi’s TV drama ratings, and it also has a score of 9-something on Douban."

"Although it’s not relying on word of mouth to explode into popularity, what’s affected is only the ratings, not my sales!"

"Because this drama has a strong ability to captivate its audience, it has a higher fan conversion rate than others!"

"Although the current viewing base is average, you can’t ignore that conversion rate!"

That’s how the entertainment industry works; some dramas, despite doing well, just don’t attract a fan following.

Others might not be as explosive, but their ability to attract fans is strong!

At this point, the ratings actually indicated that the show was somewhat of a hit.

This meant more and more people came into Youu Tea stores opting to buy the co-branded drinks!

"Hello, I’d like the Mei Changsu one."

"Can I get a Feiliu, please? I don’t want the Mei Changsu."

"Wow, there’s Lin Shu too? Then I want two, one of each, Mei Changsu and Lin Shu!"

The staff at Youu Tea could clearly feel that each day, the number of people coming to buy co-branded beverages was more than the previous day.

Those little pieces of merchandise that were expected to just sit in the stores as trash suddenly found their purpose!

However, there was still no trend of the co-branded products exploding in popularity, so Cheng Zhu didn’t rush into marketing.

Right now, he was spending more time and effort developing new products.

He visited the R&D department every day to sample the new products.

This was the second approach Cheng Zhu was planning to take, with plans to launch new products related to the characters of the drama series.

One of the products was especially compatible with the show "Langya List," which was also one of the reasons he chose to co-brand with this drama.

It was the Bayberry series in the fruit tea lineup!

This series had a great taste and included the word "mei," resonating with the main character, Mei Changsu.

It just so happened that bayberry season was coming up, which coincided with the end of the drama series—a perfect timing for the release of bayberries.

In some areas, bayberries came to market as early as the end of April, but the taste at that time was actually not the best.

The prime time spanned from the end of May to August.

For this new product, Cheng Zhu was not in a rush to launch it right away.

This co-branding was like a precise sickle, ready to harvest all the fans!

He would let everyone understand once again what it means to be the king of marketing!

And from the very beginning, there was one event that Cheng Zhu had been waiting for, which he believed was one of the reasons that the "Langya List" co-branding would be a guaranteed hit.

"I’m waiting for the death of Mei Changsu!"

...

(ps: Vote for a monthly ticket!)